Climate Change Apartheid: People In Poor Nations 5 Times More Likely To Be Displaced Than Those In Rich Ones

Establishing clear and quantitative causal links is tricky because although climate change is known to increase the frequency and severity of weather shocks over the long term, its not possible to attribute specific droughts, floods, and storms to climate change.

And, according to research published last week by Oxfam, the risks are spread extremely unequally and borne disproportionately by those least responsible for climate change: between 2008 and 2016, people in low- and lower-middle-income countries were around five times more likely than people in high-income countries to be displaced by sudden-onset extreme weather disasters.

With world leaders poised to gather in Bonn for COP 23, Oxfam stressed that reductions in global climate emissions must be made far more rapidly and called on rich countries to step up their adaptation support for poorer ones.